Today in APIs: An API in 10 Minutes and Lightbulb API

Steven Willmott explains how you can take 10 minutes out of your day and build an API. Philips Hue adds an API and SDK to bulbs. Plus: Ask Ziggy API builds-in Siri and 5 lessons from API giants.

Build and Launch an API in 10 Minutes

Steven Willmott at the Enterprise Integration site dzone.com says he got an API up and running in about the time it will take you to read this article. As he acknowledges, it wasn't the most complicated API in the universe,

"APIs can be complex and challenging to operate – but it doesn’t have to be hard to get started. To prove it and also inaugurate our video tutorial series we figured we show how to get a very simple API up, running and hosted easily and in less time than it takes to cook a hot dinner."

Don't have ten minutes? Don't sweat; the video's only 9:36... If we had a Guinness Book of Nerd Records, this might be an entry!

Bright Idea: Philips Hue LED API and SDK

Here's one way to control your lights with your iPhone, "Technabob" explains. He's a fan of the bulbs but didn't like that their app. Now he's happy with the platform opening to developers.

New applications are possible, he notes,

"While there’s already a growing community that’s been playing with the bulbs for several months now, it’s great to have officially-supported docs and tools from Philips themselves. Having these tools in hand should enable the creation of applications which can change bulb colors to music, video and other ideas which I haven’t even thought of yet. Heck, with enough Hue bulbs and the right app developer, you could probably make a (ridiculously expensive) video wall using the bulbs."

The price may be not quite as brilliant, however: $199 for a 3-bulb starter kit and $59 for each additional. Presumably, the prices will dim. In the meantime, developers can light up at developers.meethue.com.